Details from one of three journals of Confederate private John C. Henry of Dorchester County are shown in his handwriting. / staff photo by brice stump

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Elaine Patterson image. Confederate soldier, Craig Lake, of Cambridge is shown in this photograph taken about two years before his death in 1864 from smallpox. Lake was a friend of John C. Henry, who would marry his sister in 1866. Like Henry, Lake saw action at the Battle of Gettysburg.

COMING UP

A story on the mystery surrounding the fate of Co. A will soon be featured in a forthcoming installment of the Civil War series.

Brice Stump photo. In this letter written in Talbot County by Confederate John C. Henry, just after the end of the Civil, he tells his mother in Cambridge that he hopes to be allowed to come home.

Elaine Patterson, as Wilhelmina Henry, reads a war-time letter from her son, Confederate soldier John C. Henry, portrayed by Michael Dykes. Both are re-enactors of 2nd Maryland Infantry, Co. A. Patterson is the owner of the only known collection of letters, journals and photos that belonged to the Dorchester County man who fought for both sides of the Civil War. / staff photo by brice stump

This is the only known photograph of John C. Henry as a soldier. It shows him in a Confederate jacket. At 21, he had been captain of Co. A 1st Eastern Shore Maryland Infantry from Cambridge. / Elaine Patterson image

This is the only known photograph of John C. Henry as a soldier. It shows him in a Confederate jacket. At 21, he had been captain of Co. A 1st Eastern Shore Maryland Infantry from Cambridge. / Elaine Patterson image

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DELMAR — Elaine Patterson sat at the dark table in her kitchen.

She held in her hands a small journal, its fore-edge worn and tan colored, yet its cover, decorated with marbled swirls of colors so popular 150 years ago, remained stiff. In folders by her left her arm was a neatly organized pile of letters from the Civil War years.

They belonged to John Campbell Henry, a Cambridge resident who fought in the Civil War. He was not a war hero, yet his military service would make state and Dorchester County history. They came into Patterson’s possession because of a chance meeting, almost 30 years ago, over a mystery of two war jacket buttons.

“My late husband, Don, and I formed a Civil War reenactment living history group in January 1975. As is customary, we wanted to adopt a real war unit to study their history, uniforms, where they fought and so on, so we adopted the 2nd Maryland Infantry, Co. A,” she said. “They came from this area and we found that they were known for their ‘nattiness,’ which means being sharp in drill and uniform.”

As re-enactors, the infantry group traveled the Shore participating in living history ­programs.

“In the late 1980s, we were invited to participate in a ‘Militia Day’ program at Furnace Town, near Snow Hill. In conjunction with that event we put the word out that if anyone had artifacts they would like to have identified, to bring them and we would help solve mysteries,” she said. “Sometime during the day, a Jane Goldsborough from Annapolis came up to our table and said she had two Civil War buttons, one Confederate, one Union.”

Uncle Johnny

Patterson had no idea that the story behind two buttons would lead to one of the most important Civil War treasures in Dorchester County history.

“They belonged to my great-great Uncle Johnny,” Goldsborough told Patterson. “He was first in the Union, then the Confederacy. My family doesn’t want to believe it, that he switched sides, but I’ve got the records to prove it.”

“I told her we had heard of that happening before, and that another soldier from Dorchester County was first in the Col. James Wallace’s 1st Eastern Shore Regiment Infantry, Maryland Volunteers, then joined Co. A of the 2nd Maryland Infantry CSA. His name,” Patterson said, “was John C. Henry.”

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It was a familiar name to Goldsborough.

“She said, ‘Oh, that’s who I’m talking about, that’s my great-great Uncle Johnny.’ It was unbelievable. John Henry had formed ‘Capt. Henry’s Home Guard (Volunteers),’ which became Co. A, 1st Eastern Shore Maryland Infantry. What was the chances of us forming Co. A 2nd Maryland Infantry that he served in? And what were the odds of this woman coming to Furnace Town when we were there, and my son doing a Old Home Essay paper on John Henry and it being the same man as her relative? What are the chances? It was remarkable,” Patterson said.

Two buttons held a historical mystery.

“A relative of mine, I’ve never met her, who lives in Lousiana, got the contents of a house that belonged to her aunt. She got furniture, the Goldsborough family Bible, and book (journals) and letters,” Goldsborough told Patterson.

“I was able to find this relative,” Patterson said, “and found out she never read the papers she had. She was going to donate them to Tulane University. I asked her to make copies for her relatives because, when you give things to libraries, they can get lost or destroyed.”

Then, too, Patterson wanted to know if they were for sale.

“As it happened, this was about the time of the Ken Burns Civil War TV series, and this relative thought they were worth a heck of a lot more than they were. I think it was $30,000. It was a ridiculous price. We couldn’t afford that kind of money, so she went to the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Maryland Historical Society, because she thought they would buy the collection. They wanted her to donate the material,” Patterson recalled. “So six years later, we got another, more reasonable figure from her.”

Patterson, president of Maryland History Press, hopes to publish the documents in book form.

“I didn’t intend for it to take all these years, but life got in the way,” she said. “I wanted to buy the papers, because they were near and dear to my heart. Henry was from this area, and the bits and pieces I read of the papers she had indicated they were really interesting. When the lady who owned them came up to visit someone in Virginia, we finally saw them and purchased them. Yes, up until then we were negotiating for them, sight unseen. I was concerned that if we didn’t get them, they were going to get lost. If the family didn’t care any more about them than the woman who had them, their future didn’t look good.”

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In all, the collection consisted of 70 letters, three diaries or journals and family photographs. Of the 70 letters, only 17 are in his hand, the balance are ones sent by his mother.

“Sylvia Bradley, then of Salisbury University and a co-founder of the Edward H. Nabb Research Center for Delmarva History and Culture, was able to obtain a grant and had the letters transcribed. I am starting to do the journals. All these years, they have been on the back burner, and if I don’t get to them soon, publishing them, I could die,” Patterson said, smiling.

Tracing Henry's life

So, how did a Confederate button and a Union button end up in Annapolis, and how did John Henry’s belongings find their way to New Orleans?

His father, Col. Francis Jenkins Henry, served for 28 years as Clerk of Court for Dorchester County. When the war started, Henry was, according to Kimberly Baynard, author of “A Year in the Guard, Company A 1st Eastern Shore Maryland Infantry, U.S.,” living with his parents in Cambridge and working as a store clerk, probably for his father, who also had a mercantile business. His mother was Wilhelmina “Willie” Goldsborough Henry, thus the tie-in with the Goldsborough family Bible.

At the opening of the war, Henry, 21, organized his own home guard on Sept. 11, 1861.

“If you had enough money, were aristocratic and had influence, you got people around you to join,” Patterson said.

It appears that it was on the merits of friendships that Henry encouraged a number of men, particularly in his age group, to enlist in his home guard.

Yet there is another side of the story. In 1898, his father revealed in a biographical interview that it was he who raised the 100-man force and personally contributed $1,000 toward equipment costs and that his son, John C., then took charge of the company. The colonel took pride in relating that he personally knew every voter in Dorchester County.­

As clerk of court, a position that doubtless enabled him to recruit men for the home guard unit, Francis was a merchant, court clerk and farmer. He said that he owned 40 “negroes” and, through the Emancipation Act, lost $40,000 invested in them.

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According to the sketch, “He has always believed that slavery was constitutional, and that the correct way to have changed the system would have been by constitutional amendment and by the purchase and liberation of the negroes by the United States government.”

Francis’ father, also a John Campbell Henry, owner of the famed Hambrooks estate in Cambridge, owned slaves, too, as did Maryland Gov. John Henry of Weston, Francis’ grandfather.

It was John C. Henry’s role and actions as captain of Co. A 1st Eastern Shore that would forever link him to an unusual footnote of military history on the Shore. In just 11 months, Henry’s company — 100 men — was discharged, mustered out of service, Aug. 16, 1862.

Then on March 19, 1863, Henry enlisted as a private in Company A, 2nd Maryland Infantry of the Confederate States of America. His father would later recall that his son “... perceived that the ulterior object to the war (by the Union) was the freeing of the slaves, he resigned (as a Union captain and soldier) and joined the Confederate service.”

Henry’s obituary of 1910 notes that he had been offered the rank of colonel while in Union service, but he turned it down and joined the Confederacy as a private.

In July of 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg, Henry and his regiment charged the enemy.

“We waded a stream up to our waist. It was now quite dark. We continued our charge up a steep hill over rocks and fallen trees. ... We occupied their first line of breastworks during the night. I learned that little Craig Lake (a close friend from Cambridge and fellow soldier) had been wounded. After the firing had ceased, at 10 p.m., I requested Capt. Murray to allow me take him off the field, to which he consented,” Henry wrote. “I immediately went to the spot where Craig was laying and with the assistance of Lamar Holliday, a guard, and a Yankee lieutenant prisoner, who I made assist us, we soon got him out of reach of danger. When we came to the creek, the Yankee lieutenant did not relish wading over, but when I told him if he did not go in, and if he dropped Craig in the water, I would shoot him. He soon made up his mind that it would not do to trifle with a ragged Reb.”

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"Remember me kindly"

Throughout his service in the Confederacy, Henry never indicated self-doubt or regrets for his change of allegiances, yet the pain it caused in his personal life was revealed in a letter believed to have been written to his mother regarding the death of a mutual friend in Cambridge.

In January 1864 he wrote, “Remember me kindly to the family ... and assure them that I sympathize with them deeply in their distress. Though we differ in our sentiments, I can never forget their kindness, and I do not allow any prejudices to enter my bosom that will cause me to cast off those who have been tried and proven to be truest of friends ...”

Henry assured his mother of his conviction in another letter, dated February 1864: “We are in a better condition than ever before, and nearly all the troops are re-enlisting for 40 years of the war, showing that we never intend to yield ...”

Henry’s mother addressed the change of allegiance in a letter, in which she wrote, “Johnie, darling, always think of us as full of devoted love for you. Your leaving home without our knowledge, and entertaining different views from what we think right, has made me sometimes fear you may suppose our love for you has lessened, but that can never be. Our hearts are filled with sorrow, not anger, and our affection, if possible, greater, because you are separated from us. ... Think of us, my darling, as having you ever in our thoughts.”

In another letter to his mother, dated Feb. 21, 1864, Henry wrote: “I have remembered that this evening is the anniversary of my departure from all those who I love and hold dear ... this evening one year ago, everything being prepared for my journey, I started for the Confederacy. I reached Richmond early in March; joined the Army and passed safely through the battles of Winchester and Gettysburg ...”

Henry was wounded five times while serving in the Confederacy.

In another letter he wrote, “On Feb 23, the weather is mild and beautiful. Winder (a friend from Cambridge) and I took a long walk in the evening though and talked of home.” Like others, he was nostalgic and was coming to terms with the political and military issues of his time. He dealt with personal losses.

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“It is my painful duty to announce to you the death of our poor little friend Craig (the younger brother of Ann Lake whom Henry would marry). He came up to camp several weeks ago and was taken sick the same day,” he wrote his mother. “We sent him back to (Robinson House Hospital in) Richmond the next day, supposing him to have the measles but it turned out to be the smallpox. He died four days after leaving me ... I have lost a dear friend in our poor little boy. He died Tuesday, March 1 (1864).” Henry mentioned in his journal that he “ ... nursed Craig all day. He is quite sick.”

Craig Lake had served as a guard over Yankee prisoners.

Lake is believed to be buried in Christ Episcopal Church Cemetery in Cambridge, though his grave, and that of his father, remained unmarked. It is surprising that Henry, whose parents are also buried there, did not lead an effort to have a tombstone placed for Lake during the years after the war that he lived in Cambridge.­

Also buried in the churchyard is Lieut. Col. Clement Sulivane (1838-1920), who was a close friend of Henry and Lake. Henry mentioned Sulivane as being in his company during the war a number of times in his journal.

War is over

At the end of the war, Henry very much wanted to return to Cambridge. In his return from the South, Henry stayed with relatives in Talbot County. In a letter dated May 1865 to his mother, Henry cautioned her not to put his name on the envelope of a return letter, but to use the name of a friend.

“He was afraid to come home,” Patterson explained. Henry explained to his mother that he and other detained Confederate troops were restricted in their movements in the county. During the week or so there, Henry wrote that he enjoyed a rich social life, visiting friends and family, enjoying “elegant” meals, taking tea and socializing at parties until midnight.

He also wrote her that he was hopeful that a Union officer would soon “ ... be empowered to administer the (amnesty) oath and set us at liberty ... When I return to Cambridge I deem it best to go to the country for a few days.” Had he not been allowed to enter Talbot County, Henry had planned to stay in Accomack County. “Should we be compelled to leave Maryland for a while, we intend going to Accomack County where I have no doubt we will be able to obtain some kind of employment, until such time we will be permitted to return to our homes.”

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Henry left Talbot County and returned to Cambridge and married Ann Eliza Lake on Oct. 26, 1866.

The story of the balance of his life is summarized in his obituary, which appeared in The Daily Picayune of New Orleans. He died there April 21, 1910.

“Death of a gallant veteran and worthy citizen,” the article heralded. “A member of one of the oldest and most distinguished families of Maryland and for the past 20 years an umbrella manufacturer here” has died. “In 1891 he came to New Orleans engaged in business with his brother-in-law. Ever since he has been prominently identified with the business life of the city. ... He was of a natural military bent and had his own company. His company was mustered out after the war started. Although Mr. Henry was offered a colonel ship in the Union Army, he joined the Confederate side. He was a member of the 2nd Maryland regiment of the Army of Northern Virginia. After the war he returned to Baltimore and was made first oyster patrolman of the state serving under Capt. Hunter Davidson, one of the officers of the Confederate Navy.”

The Maryland Oyster Navy became the present day Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police.

“He was a member of the local camp of the Army of Northern Virginia. As his body laid in state in the parlor of his home, the stars and bars under which he fought with such vigor were wrapped around the coffin containing his remains,” the newspaper article said.

Henry is buried in an Army of the Northern Virginia tomb in Metaire Cemetery, New Orleans.

His wife, Ann Lake Henry, born in 1840, died in Baltimore at the home of a daughter, Jan. 13, 1932.

As for the mystery of the buttons, Patterson said she may have an answer.­

“He gave his Confederate jacket to the Confederate Memorial Hall Museum in New Orleans. We learned he apologized that the buttons were not on the jacket when he gave it to the museum,” Patterson said, “because the women in his family wanted them as souvenirs.”

Those souvenirs of his military past became the cherished buttons Patterson saw at Furnace Town decades ago.

As for the regimental flag of the 2nd Maryland Infantry Regiment CSA, under which Henry served, it was captured during the battle at Hatcher’s Run, near Appomattox, Va., by an Ohio unit, according to Patterson. It was returned to Maryland in 1909 and was displayed in the state capital. It was taken down years ago and is now in the collection of the Maryland State Archives.­